Business
Follow on Investment
Follow on Investment.
About this update from Truetide Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 1681L Braveheart Investment Group plc 06 January 2009 \n \n6 January 2008 \n\n\nBraveheart Investment Group plc\n('Braveheart' or the 'Group')\n\nFurther Investment in Tayside Flow Technologies Ltd\n\nBraveheart (AIM: BRH), the technology commercialisation and investment management company, announces that it has led a further funding round for Tayside Flow Technologies ('TFT' or 'the Company') with investors comprising Braveheart and its clients, Scottish Enterprise, Sir Tom Farmer and Quayle Munro. Company management and private investors also participated in the round, which totaled c£1m and which comprised the conversion of bridge funding into equity and the provision of new equity. Braveheart first invested in TFT in 2002 and has participated in a number of funding rounds since then. \n\nTFT was initially founded in 1998 as a spin out from Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust. The Company specialises in technology that reintroduces the human body's natural bloodflow, known as Spiral Laminal Flow (SLF); SLF technology will be used in medical implants. By reintroducing natural blood flow, SLF can reduce bloodflow turbulence and disturbance in implants such as grafts and stents, thereby increasing patency and mitigating downstream disease progression. TFT has made significant progress in the past 12 months and will use the additional funding to further register and commercialise its novel peripheral bypass graft that has now been launched in several European markets.\n\nThe global market for TFT's products is estimated to be around £11 billion. Cardiovascular diseases are the number one killer in the US and the UK. According to the American Heart Foundation over 60 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. The graft market has seen little innovation in the past 20 years and the Company's proprietary SLF technology has the potential to extend both the quality and lifespan of cardiovascular devices.\n\nThe Company's lead product is a peripheral vascular graft ('PVG graft') that is used to bypass blocked arteries. The PVG graft has been in successful clinical trials showing compelling evidence for the technology (18 month data was recently presented), achieved European authorisation (the CE mark) in January 2008 and has now been launch...